When in Rome by Sarah Adams - A Book Review

by - October 29, 2024

 


Synopsis:

Rome is where the heart is.

Amelia Rose is burned-out from years of maintaining her public image as pop princess Rae Rose. Inspired by her favourite Audrey Hepburn film, Roman Holiday, she drives off in the middle of the night for a break in Rome . . . Rome, Kentucky, that is.

Running the pie shop his grandmother left him, Noah Walker is busy enough as it is. But after finding Amelia on his front lawn in her broken-down car, he decides to let her stay in his guest room – on a very temporary basis, of course.

As the two of them grow closer, Noah starts to see a new side to Amelia – kind-hearted and goofy, yet lonely from years in the public eye. Amelia may have to go back to her other life someday, but for now she’s perfectly happy falling in love with the cozy small town she’s found herself in . . . and her grumpy tour guide isn’t half-bad either.

Genre: Contemporary Romance 

Tropes:
  • Small Town
  • Grumpy X Sunshine 
  • Forced Proximity 
  • Roommates 
  • Famous Singer 
My Thoughts:

So close, but not close enough (to finishing my A-Z Reading Challenge). 

Letter W of the reading challenge I decided to read When In Rome by Sarah Adams. I first ventured Sarah’s work last year when I stumbled upon Practice Makes Perfect, which I absolutely loved! I went into reading that book not realising it was actually the second of the series and when I did realise, I was a good chunk into Practice Makes Perfect and didn’t want to stop, but equally I knew I had to read the first book of the series too.


After finishing Virtuous Lies, I felt like I was burning myself out with trying to get through the challenge so quickly, whilst also trying to fit in all the many other books I wanted to read. 

My motivation had dipped and that’s why it took me quite a while to finish When In Rome – not that reading length is a reflection of enjoyment. I think subconsciously I was putting off reading the first book of the series because I loved Practice Makes Perfect so much and I was worried that I wouldn’t enjoy the book as much and therefore, be disappointed. 

Once I finally got over this feeling and truly let myself read it, I absolutely loved it! I really enjoyed reading about Amelia and Noah’s story – I loved their personalities. How Noah was very grumpy and how Amelia was a golden ray of sunshine. The whole story gave me Gilmore Girls vibes (pretty sure o say that on every small town trope), but Noah reminded me so much of Luke with his dry sense of humour and sarcasm and Amelia reminded me on Lorelai with her witty comebacks – it’s got me considering rewatching Gilmore Girls! 

The whole story was done perfectly, I just wish we had a scene where Noah taught Amelia how to make his pancakes because it was made a theme throughout how bad Amelia couldn’t make pancakes and with her even asking Noah to teach her. So I was slightly disappointed we didn’t see a potentially cute scene between them. 
I loved reading the banter between Noah and Amelia and it had me smiling to myself. 

I’m really looking forward to reading the third book of the series, which has been announced! I was initially confused at the mention of Noah’s sisters other than Annie mainly because cause it was so long ago I read Practice Makes Perfect and therefore forgot that detail. 
I feel like on this series there’ll be 4 books total because there’s 4 walker siblings, so after Emily’s book, it leaves Madison. 

This book made me slightly emotional and not because it was emotional, just because it made me realise how much I want what Amelia and Noah have (hello very single life) – all I want is my own book romance which is clearly too much to ask for in the modern day of dating of tinder and hinge. 

I like that so far all of the books are interconnected series that can be read as a stand alone because it takes the pressure off reading the next. 


My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5 (half a rating lower than Practice Makes Perfect, purely because Annie and Will have my heart) 

Georgia
🌷

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